Businesses worldwide are spending $8 billion annually on diversity and inclusion programmes. However, despite heavy investment in diversity, many companies report that they are still not getting results. Loosening our grip on ‘process’ to solve this issue and taking a more human approach might well be the way forward. We need to look to the emotional needs of our people to dismantle the barriers to an unequivocal sense of belonging in our corporate environments and accelerate a real shift in our world.
What we know is that leaders tend to hire people that ‘look’ like them. In order to uproot this behaviour, global consulting firm Deloitte’s have identified what they call the six traits of inclusive leaders: Commitment, Courage, Cognisance of bias, Curiosity, Cultural intelligence, Collaboration to guide their own attempts to dismantle bias.
At North, we believe any leadership approach to dismantling inherent biases must begin with leaders embodying the more typically feminine traits of connectedness, collaboration, humility and empathy. These traits alongside an appetite for risk taking has potential to open up channels for new thinking to emerge.
We spoke to Suzi Edwards-Alexander, Founder, Appartenir, to further explore what businesses can do to positively change the balance. Appartenir advises businesses on how to recruit, engage and promote talent from across under-represented groups,
Why Balance and Belonging rather than Diversity and Inclusion?
Diversity and Inclusion are two very different things. Businesses are getting better at hiring more diverse employees, but often at the expense of building an inclusive environment where under-represented groups feel welcome. Reframing the discussion to talk about balance and belonging means we can invite an open conversation for everyone about what it means to go to work.
What are the key areas that companies need to be mindful of? What pitfalls need to be avoided, what challenges need to be acknowledged and grappled with?
Firstly, this is not just a recruitment problem. We cannot continue to hire people from under-represented groups into environments that are hostile or just not ready for diversity hires. We need to grow the people that are already in our businesses, recognise that while businesses are learning this stuff, there are existing employees who are having a really hard time, and create positive role models.
Secondly, beware of the “D&I second shift”, where under-recognised groups are themselves tasked with improving the work environment in which they are working. This Herculean task can distract from their own potential and opportunities and unintentionally creates more of an attainment gap. Instead, companies should be having a more open conversation with all employees about what needs to change and making everyone accountable for making it happen.
Finally, there is a need to take judgement out of the dialogue – to bring those with privilege into the conversation and set the expectation that all employees have a responsibility to be advocates for change.
What are the opportunities for companies? In terms of how they operate internally, work with clients, attract talent, present themselves to the world?
Harnessing different backgrounds and experience has beautiful potential – to improve employee experience, facilitate innovation and boost company performance. When people can be themselves at work, they are more collaborative, more productive, and more inventive. In the creative space, it can be translated into tangible commercial advantage.
How do companies sustain Balance and Belonging? How do they make sure that commitment is sustained and that changes to policy and process are embedded culturally?
This is about improving the experience of work for all your employees. It’s about getting back to basics – reviewing the guiding principles of your business, ensuring your values are accessible to and resonate with all team members. And putting a functional lens on these values – so that they represent not just who we want to be but how we expect people to do.
Take a team by team approach to implementing change. This can deliver more improvement more quickly. There are tools that can help – for example, programmes that look across performance feedback to spot bias. This data is useful for opening up the conversation, acknowledging the bias in an objective way, and working together to mitigate against it. And finally, we should remember that if we make just one person’s experience better, we have been successful.
The goal is creating positive workplaces in which we all feel that work can be a place where people care about the same things as we do.